cars and bikes

I DO and DO NOT agree with the reviewers here. Driver is not a bad game and it has some flaws too. It's true , it came out with a BIG opponent (GTA, Vice city). BUT let's not forget Driver is a Driving Game. You get a lot of fun out of it, since it's not based on competition but on a storyline. The minigames are difficult but fun.

PROS: Graphics are great.
Gameplay is fun.
You can spend a lot of time on the free mode "Just Driving"
You can use all your experience gained on Gran Turismo to beat some of the mini games.
Very powerful replay editor (nice tools: slow motion, free camera to look where you want, add more cameras to the scene and many more like that).
The music
The atmosphere

CONS: Well, you can read all the "One star reviews" and you can get some of the flaws. I can only say they're like on a "Fanatic point of view" because they are not that bad to make driver a game with less than 3 stars , which is anyway a good game.

I can only tell you one BIG mistake: Any car, including an 18 wheeler , will crash with tiny objects like a street lamp or a bush on the road... It makes no sense !!!

...well...

If you are just a gamer who want's a good time and you don't make a BAD REVIEW the event where you can really tell to others how a BAD GUY you are... well, you may enjoy DRIV3R.

Obviously Rock Star games must be lobbying Amazon because anybody who has played the Driver games and GTA will love Driv3r as the best thing that has come out on PS2 yet. Although there are some game crashes (as with Vice City but a little more here) because the A.I. is so sophisticated. With so many possibilities because of the highly detailed and semi-destructible environments and certainly destructible vehicles - that to tune this game to perfection, without crashes would probably mean waiting for the PS3 to come out or the PC VERSION! There is no doubt - no other game has pushed the limits of a gaming experience like Driv3r. The Getaway had similar problems on release with its glitches but Driv3r is nothing like that horrible experience and is more akin to that cherry you got popped when you stuck the Vice City disk into the machine (as if VC did not have some glitches too). Also please remember that if it was not for Driver 1 + 2 we would not have had the 3D GTA series!!!! GTA 3D was spawned by the Driver series!!!! Div3r has now taken the lead. It deserves it too.
There are 3 full scale cities (Miami, Nice and Istanbul - all WOW! WOW! BIG WOW!). Tanner has a choice of several weapons including a rocket launcher that virtually blows up everything except some buildings. There are, however, no sniper riffles or melee weapons. A pair of binoculars with a zoom feature would not have gone amiss! Tanner can swim! So no more death by drowning - YOU can fly off a bridge into the water and swim ashore again! The vehicle destruction systems and world physics in this game are as good as they will get on the PS2. When this thing hits the PC it will probably be awesome. The driving is as realistic as Grand Turismo and is not too far away from matching the graphics found in Need for Speed: Underground. There is a cool slow motion "fun" feature in the controller (L1+R1) that allows you to see crashes in slow-mo while still driving. There is very little blood in the game but that does not make it any less violent. The shootouts with the cops after a chase are first rate action sequences. Unlike Vice City everything comes out of the blue and you will not second guess a thing. The A.I is that good.
The replay and director mode are sublime. With Driver 1 + 2 you have spent hours creating endless little movies. If you liked that experience Driv3r will have you doing a recreation of the Steve McQueen Bullet car chase sequence in no time. Every conceivable camera angle and tracking shots are covered (with controllable cinematic motion blur!... Hell Yeah!)
The story is great and requires you to think about it a little. It basically revolves around a car heist gang and you work with foreign cops undercover to expose the ring. The cut sequences are almost film quality CGI and voiced by major Hollywood actors. The missions themselves are each compelling, entertaining and present a level of realistic quality not seen before. This is as close as it gets to playing a movie. The free ride mode of course will allow you everlasting driving and mayhem across the 3 cities for the price of $50. You can also play various type chase/getaway/cross country/point to point/ scenarios.

It has NO multiplayer which is a shame. I have wondered why they did not do this but then again this may be a problem with the PS2 engine. It is my understanding that Vice City programmers could not do it either. I doubt we will ever see a 2 player game this rich in detail and game physics without better technology (In Grand Turismo you went around circuits and things did not blow up! and there where no cop chases and shootouts). Now and again the PS2 does stall at times even in the only single player mode. There is also no stats page like in GTA.
There are tons of missions and you will spend a few days at them.... relentlessly. I can not quarrel about any of the little glitches that crop up now and again causing you to press reset on the console. To be honest the more I learned to control the game the less the glitches appeared (come on folks, they only happen now and again when you start learning the game). In fact I have not found a glitch in quite a long time (playing now 70 hours + for sure). The bottom line is that this is an evolution in gaming experience and possibly the human condition. Nothing will be the same after playing Driv3r. Remember the 1 star reviews here are probably work of Rock Star or Hardcore GTA fans.
Pros:
- The BEST game ever for the PS2. Better than Vice City.
- Graphics are the best in any game for the PS2 so far. 3 gloriously rendered cities to do battle with.
- The driving IS Grand Turismo.
- The slo-mo fun feature is whacked out!
- The shootouts and destruction on this scale and realism have not been seen before.
- You can do virtually anything you want in the game.
- The A.I is outstanding.
- The car crash physics are like something NASA came up with.
Cons:
- Some glitches (jumping and control problems, going through walls sometimes, odd game crash).
- Requires a greater deal of practice than you think before you fully come to grips with the Driv3r experience.
- The shooting system may not be to everyone's style.
- Character movement may appear sluggish at times (yet during playback it looks extremely realistic).
- The height of realism impacts the cartoonish quality that GTA has.
- You will die quicker in this game because you can be injured while driving.

i have been a hardcore fan of the driver series. i have all 3...anyway, not as fun as gta vice city. it is much harder and the controlls could have used a little work((my fav config is from ace combat 4) you dont have a roaming mode, like in gta, its just mission to mission, any you cant pick a mission like in the orig. driver. the "world" and "driveing" are much better, but no strippers, and not as much blood.